Dr. Phillips Crushes Cypress Creek, 36-0

Dr. Phillips was ripe for a letdown Thursday night, but the Panthers' smothering defensive unit simply would not allow it.

The Panthers got two first-quarter touchdowns from sophomore Byron Shaw and the defense did the rest with its second consecutive shutout for a 36-0 drubbing of host Cypress Creek at The Woods.

Shaw scored on the Panthers' second offensive play. He raced untouched 58 yards on a reverse play at the 9:51 mark of the first quarter. With 3 seconds left in the period, Shaw hauled in a 32-yard scoring pass from Jabu Powell and the rout was on.

''All week our coaches told us to remain focused,'' Shaw said. ''It doesn't matter if we're playing Evans or Cypress Creek, you have to play hard. . . . Tonight we did that and we got the win.''

Dr. Phillips (5-1) was coming off the biggest victory in school history. The Panthers knocked off Class 6A, District 5 rival Evans, 22-0. It was the first time the Panthers had beaten the Trojans in 10 attempts.

Against the Bears (0-6), Dr. Phillips looked a little rusty, on offense anyway.

''It's tough to get ready when you have a short week,'' Panthers coach Ken Edenfield said. ''We were real sloppy early in the contest, but we got back on track and our defense turned in another excellent effort.''

Take away two long pass plays by Cypress Creek - a 56-yarder to Andre Corbin and a 47-yarder to Donald Toney - and the Bears would have had negative yardage on offense. The Bears picked up just three first downs. One of those came on a penalty, one of 18 committed by the Panthers.

''No, I'm not too happy about those penalties,'' Edenfield said. ''I have never been around a team that has been as penalized as much as we have this year.''

Cypress Creek failed to take advantage of Dr. Phillips' charity. Just twice did the Bears get into scoring position and both times they came away empty.